When planned for delivery, a public speech is often organized into three distinct portions, namely the introduction, the body and the conclusion. In the introduction, a speaker usually greets his audience with light hearted comments often called ice breakers, introduces his topic and summarizes the contents of his speech. Main points and details of the selected topic are usually delivered during the body of the speech while issues and points-of-view presented by the speaker are often summed up and delivered in conclusory fashion during the conclusion of the speech.
Experience has shown that the total duration of a speech as well as the relative durations of its corresponding portions, i.e. the speech's time scheduling, can be critical to its effectiveness and to its ability to maintain a high level of interest among the audience. An effectively delivered one hour speech might, for example, be organized into an introduction lasting fifteen minutes, a body lasting thirty-five minutes and a conclusion lasting ten minutes. Significant deviations from the time schedule of the speech can and often does result in an ineffective delivery of what would otherwise be an interesting and effective speech. It is therefore highly desirable that a public speaker plan his speech carefully and pace himself when delivering the speech so as to maintain the predetermined critical time scheduling thereof.
In the past, public speakers, having previously planed the content of a speech to conform to a desired timing schedule, have commonly timed the actual delivery of the speech by simply glancing at a watch or clock occasionally and mentally calculating the total lapsed time since the beginning of the speech as well as the lapsed time since the beginning of each portion thereof. While this method is somewhat effective, the speaker's constant glancing at his watch can be distracting to him and to his audience. Further, the required mental calculations can interrupt the speaker's chain-of-thought further detracting from the effectiveness of his delivery. This is particularly true where the speech begins at an uneven time increment from which subsequent time periods are difficult to calculate quickly.
In some cases, speakers have attempted to avoid these problems by carefully planning and rehearsing a speech repeatedly prior to its delivery in an effort to assure its proper time scheduling upon delivery. This method, however, can be unreliable as it depends upon the environment and circumstances surrounding the actual delivery speech being substantially similar to those in which rehearsals have occurred. Further, unexpected interruptions such as audience questions can disrupt the speaker's pace and destroy the rehearsed timing of the speech making it virtually impossible for the speaker to adjust remaining portions of the speech to revive the original schedule.
A continuing and unaddressed need exists, therefore, for a method and embodying apparatus adapted to assist a public speaker in conforming to a preselected timing schedule while delivering a speech with such apparatus overcoming problems long associated with prior art methods. It is to the provision of such a method and apparatus that the present invention is primarily directed.